How can I reduce the amount of food I waste?

One of our worst habits is wasting food. Not huge amounts but enough to make me want to change our ways.

Sometimes it’s store-cupboard stuff that goes well out of date without us noticing – stuff we bought on 3-for-2 offers but got bored after the second one, or stuff we bought because we were, for example, eating a lot of nut roasts at that point but then we seemed to forget about them and developed a blind spot around their part of the shelf whenever we looked into the cupboard for something for dinner. Other times, it’s fridge stuff – salad mostly or half-eaten packs of cheese – or stuff that was once store-cupboard but is now fridge stuff: partially used cans of beans or custard that turn before we can use the second half.

We’re not overly fussy eaters and generally regard best before and use by dates as guidelines – if it smells alright and looks alright, we’ll eat it. I’m also happy making soup, chillis and curries out of misc things that need eating, and we’ve tried to cut down the very short-life veg we buy: we’re going to grow pick-and-come-again lettuces in our new-house sun-porch and realised that in many places a pickled pepper or the like will serve just as well as fresh. But I still think there is more we could be doing.

What do you do to make sure you don’t waste food? Do you only buy for a couple of meals at a time? Do you plan weekly menus that you stick to? Do you have procedures to make sure you use up cupboard items in a timely manner? Love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

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15 Responses to “How can I reduce the amount of food I waste?”

For those living in Scotland (or not!), Waste Aware Scotland have created a fantastic website with information on reducing your food waste, including advice and recipes from some of Scotland’s top chefs and food writers.

Lately I have been completely failing in this. I’ve been leaving dinner leftovers on the counter too long, then having to throw it out rather than risk food poisoning. Realized I could set the alarm on my cell phone as a reminder, so I’m beginning that tonight.

To use up stuff in the cupboards and the freezer, I see what I have available and plan meals around that, then plan my shopping. It does take some time planning, but it is better than throwing food out.

Plan your leftovers into a meal. Sometimes DH and I kick around what would you make with _____ (e.g. beans). For example, beans and cornbread could turn up again as beans and rice, or bean salad. It is a fun game.

Take a period of time, say 2 weeks, without buying any food, then cook only what you have on hand. Saves on the grocery bill, plus uses up old stuff in the cupboard that might go to waste.

Look into your produce bins 2x a week and make something from them.

Feed chickens any leftovers that are past their prime (but not spoiled) . If you wouldn’t eat it, then don’t feed it.

Just because the “use by” date is past doesn’t mean that the food is not perfectly fine. Unless it is very old I use it anyway and can’t see any difference, but be careful of perishables, such as meat and produce.

Most work places have microwaves to heat food, so it is easy to bring leftover lunches.

A 3-for-2 offer on something you wouldn’t normally buy is an ADDITIONAL spend, not a saving. Have the strength to walk past it!

I kept throwing out the last couple of carrots as I was obviously overestimating how many I would eat before they went off, so now I deliberately buy fewer than I think I can eat. I bought more because I like them, but wasn’t factoring in the speed they go off at.

Are you regularly throwing the same types of things away? Try keeping a list of what you’re wasting – that might help you see what you need to buy less of.

Make sure to store things properly too, so they last as long as they can. I keep veg in the fridge, including potatoes, which don’t start sprouting if they’re kept cold. Keeping things dry, cool, dark and airtight can make lots of things last much longer.

1. Check what you already have in your fridge and cupboards before going shopping.

2. Ignore the advertising carried out by supermarkets to tempt us all to buy more and buy in bulk. Remember that the 30% of food you waste is helping them make huge profits at your expense.

3. If you carry out a weekly shopping trip, then plan your food menu for the week and only buy accordingly. Stick to the menu and plan it well. For instance, carrots and pumpkin last longer than greens and bean sprouts, so use your greens up earlier in the week.

4. Resist any special offers and don’t buy anything you wouldn’t eat. Generic brands may be cheaper, but if it tastes horrible and no one wants to eat it, it will still go to waste.

5. Avoid going food shopping with children and don’t give in to their demands for highly packaged cereal, junk food and fast food that comes with toys.

6. Use leftovers creatively. Vegetables that are too bruised or withered for salad may still be good in soups, stir-frys and casserole. Many fish and meat-based leftovers such as sausage or burger meat can be reheated and used in sandwiches and pasta, or as pizza topping. Slightly stale bread can be used for French toast or in bread pudding. Half-finished boxes of festive candy can be used to decorate cakes and cookies. Fresh fruit can be made into jam or pie filling.

7. Ensure that the temperature thermostat in your fridge is set correctly so that fresh produce does not go bad. Rotate food in your fridge — those closest to their expiry dates should be put in front, those less likely to expire in the back.

8. If you buy ready-to-eat meals, such as fish-n-chips from the supermarket, then make sure they are the right size for you and nothing will be wasted afterwards.

9. Make sure you use up all your instant meals and not change your mind about eating them once they are in your kitchen.

10. On an ongoing basis, keep an eye on what is being wasted in your kitchen and what you can do to cut it out completely. An estimated 60% of food that is dumped is expired food. Therefore, keep close tabs of what you have in the fridge and cabinets. Check them each month and use up food before they go bad.

11. Eat more healthy foods – and you will find you eat less anyway. A friend reported that after switching to organic greens, the family found it too costly to waste vegetables and so all of the vegetables were consumed.

12. Read your labels and handle and store your food properly. Most sauces, condiments and drink concentrates have to be refrigerated after opening. Some have to be used up within a certain time after opening. Canned food has to be transferred to another container, preferably glass, as it is dangerous to leave food in opened tins. Exposed tin will oxidise and change the chemical composition of its contents, thus making your food toxic. Store food in airtight containers to reduce the risk of contamination.

13. Biscuits can lose their crispness if stored too long, even in airtight containers and tins. Try adding a clean piece of coal, a carbon-based fridge deodoriser, silicone dehumidifier packets from your vitamin bottles or sugar lumps in the tin. The above items act as dehumidifiers and will draw moisture away from the biscuits. Alternatively, you can keep them fresh and crunchy by storing them in the refrigerator if you have the space. This does not create a strain on the refrigerator but instead, conserves energy, as the refrigerated food keeps the temperature constant and there is now less empty space to keep refrigerated.

14. Cut down on your grocery shopping trips. If you shop on a weekly basis, try shopping only once in 2 weeks. This will cut down on your fuel costs, the number of plastic bags used and will compel you to use up food items in your refrigerator and pantry before buying more. Don’t forget that many of us make impromptu purchases while shopping, so reducing your trips will also reduce unnecessary purchases.

This is a neat trick to keep your chese from molding. Get a floursack dishtowel (the fabric has no loops, it’s flat like bedsheet material) and soak it in white vinegar, then wring it out but don’t make it completely dry. Now wrap your cheese with it. The PH(high acid) of the vinegar keeps mold from growing and no, your cheese will not taste like vinegar. Keep the towel wrapped cheese in a plastic bag in the fridge.

1. Check what you already have in your fridge and cupboards before going shopping.
2. Ignore the advertising carried out by supermarkets to tempt us all to buy more and buy in bulk. Remember that the 30% of food you waste is helping them make huge profits at your expense.
3. If you carry out a weekly shopping trip, then plan your food menu for the week and only buy accordingly. Stick to the menu and plan it well. For instance, carrots and pumpkin last longer than greens and bean sprouts, so use your greens up earlier in the week.
4. Resist any special offers and don’t buy anything you wouldn’t eat. Generic brands may be cheaper, but if it tastes horrible and no one wants to eat it, it will still go to waste.
5. Avoid going food shopping with children and don’t give in to their demands for highly packaged cereal, junk food and fast food that comes with toys.
6. Use leftovers creatively. Vegetables that are too bruised or withered for salad may still be good in soups, stir-frys and casserole. Many fish and meat-based leftovers such as sausage or burger meat can be reheated and used in sandwiches and pasta, or as pizza topping. Slightly stale bread can be used for French toast or in bread pudding. Half-finished boxes of festive candy can be used to decorate cakes and cookies. Fresh fruit can be made into jam or pie filling.
7. Ensure that the temperature thermostat in your fridge is set correctly so that fresh produce does not go bad. Rotate food in your fridge — those closest to their expiry dates should be put in front, those less likely to expire in the back.
8. If you buy ready-to-eat meals, such as fish-n-chips from the supermarket, then make sure they are the right size for you and nothing will be wasted afterwards.
9. Make sure you use up all your instant meals and not change your mind about eating them once they are in your kitchen.
10. On an ongoing basis, keep an eye on what is being wasted in your kitchen and what you can do to cut it out completely. An estimated 60% of food that is dumped is expired food. Therefore, keep close tabs of what you have in the fridge and cabinets. Check them each month and use up food before they go bad.
11. Eat more healthy foods – and you will find you eat less anyway. A friend reported that after switching to organic greens, the family found it too costly to waste vegetables and so all of the vegetables were consumed.
12. Read your labels and handle and store your food properly. Most sauces, condiments and drink concentrates have to be refrigerated after opening. Some have to be used up within a certain time after opening. Canned food has to be transferred to another container, preferably glass, as it is dangerous to leave food in opened tins. Exposed tin will oxidise and change the chemical composition of its contents, thus making your food toxic. Store food in airtight containers to reduce the risk of contamination.
13. Biscuits can lose their crispness if stored too long, even in airtight containers and tins. Try adding a clean piece of coal, a carbon-based fridge deodoriser, silicone dehumidifier packets from your vitamin bottles or sugar lumps in the tin. The above items act as dehumidifiers and will draw moisture away from the biscuits. Alternatively, you can keep them fresh and crunchy by storing them in the refrigerator if you have the space. This does not create a strain on the refrigerator but instead, conserves energy, as the refrigerated food keeps the temperature constant and there is now less empty space to keep refrigerated.
14. Cut down on your grocery shopping trips. If you shop on a weekly basis, try shopping only once in 2 weeks. This will cut down on your fuel costs, the number of plastic bags used and will compel you to use up food items in your refrigerator and pantry before buying more. Don’t forget that many of us make impromptu purchases while shopping, so reducing your trips will also reduce unnecessary purchases.

One of the things I do is use freezer containers. If I have a few peas left over, I pour them and the “juice” into a freezer container. Later that week, if I have water I’ve boiled potatoes in, I add that to the peas, then maybe add the few cooked left-over carrots, etc. until the container is full. When I make homemade veggie soup, I add that container to the pot. Really makes for a fabulous soup!

I write a menu plan each week. I do mine on a Friday because I shop on a Saturday. It is important to look in the cupboard and the fridge to figure out what I already have so it doesn’t get wasted. I sometimes literally sit in the larder to make my menu (it always makes my husband laugh)

I sit with a cup of tea, some cookbooks and write my menu plan. Then as I go I write the shopping list and we buy it the next day. As somebody wrote above – I try to plan things that go off for early in the week (like fish and mushrooms) and other things later. I did find that I was guilty of buying things that I had no idea how to use. I try not to do that now but to use up those items I google the item with “recipe” and normally find something I can use it for. Unusual brands often have recipes on their websites.

I do deviate from my shopping list but only if the item will store well. So if fish is on offer but not on my list I might buy it and then stick it in the freezer.

I find menu planning saves me money too. I eat leftovers for lunch the next day but if I have a moment of madness and cook way too much (the other day I did this with savoury rice) I freeze it in old marg or ice cream tubs.

I find that knowing what is in our fridge is essential. We save old cottage cheese, sour cream, etc. tubs and use them to store food. The problem is that they are opaque and things get lost in the fridge, only to come out with mold on them. While it’s good to keep and re-use those tubs, there also needs to be some way of indicating what’s in them. Dry erase markers maybe?

I saw a very handy tutorial the other week for that sort of thing – a square of blackboard paint. They did it onto glass/plastic jars more so than those sort of tubs but it would be worth it for tubs you’re going to reuse for a long time:

Another thing we’ve done in the past is always use the same (type of) tub for certain things if possible so you know just by looking into the fridge what sort of thing is in there – for example, short but wide yoghurt pots are used for leftover sauces; tall supermarket soup containers either house soup or stock; and the very tight sealing Thai red curry paste pot is used for raw onion. There is still a bit of a date issue – remembering to eat things in good time before they go mouldy – but it makes casual glances into the fridge easier.

grow your own food. greens in the garden have a much longer “shelf – life”.
stick some garlic bulbs in a pot and they will give you fresh garlic greens. use the bulbs that are too small to bother with. grow pumpkin sprouts or microgreens from the seeds of a pumpkin. learn which foods freeze well, like bread. process in a food processor things like ginger or lemongrass, portion them out into tablespoon servings and freeze for later use. learn to dehydrate foods. have recipes handy that use interchangeable ingredients. my favorite for using up fruit: In a high-speed blender, blend the juice of a lemon, equal amount agave nectar (or your favorite sweetener), water and ice. This is good by itself! Texture is like lemonade snow! To this you can add just about any fruit you have on hand. Try strawberries (will taste like strawberry daiquiri!), mango, grapes, pineapple, etc.

these are all ideas i need to publish in my blog but i haven’t had time yet.